National Media Museum Faith Project

Thought I'd interest you all in some higher res photos of the completed church pew illustrations. Finally finished the work on Wednesday 23rd of March. Now onto the next project whatever that is...

Church Pews: Faith

For the past 2 weeks I've been working on a commission by The National Media Museum in Bradford in conjunction with Freedom Studios. The exhibition is based on the theme of Faith and they'd asked me to illustrate loosely around famous locations and images related to Bradford. I'd spent a week researching the city and its famous landmarks as well as listening to recordings from the archives.

The studio managed to acquire a 200 year old oak church pew which they have chopped down into 6 individual seats that can sit 2 people, they even had to recreate the pew ends as closest to authenticity. I'd required them to coat them all in white emulsion (which I thought was sacrilegious to say the least but necessary) and then I allowed myself some time to plan head until I went straight in with marker pens.

The pews are stored in an abandoned mill, in the industrial quarter of Bradford, it's bloody cold in there and I'm constantly having to warm myself up by jumping around whilst listening to my ipod. I've found the best artists for this are Flying Lotus, Wu-Tang Clan and MF Doom. Lots of fun.

These will be on display at the museum by the end of the month and will be accompanied by a leather bound book which will have a miniature speaker inside playing a recording.

Look forward to seeing how they look on display!

St. Thomas Primary

For 2 days I'd been working at St. Thomas Primary in Meadowhead, working alongside Year 2 and Year 3 pupils for their "Making History" Project. It was a very enthralling and engaging experience working with young enthusiastic children whom were very sweet and very bright.

The two mural pieces are interpretations of the children's input, where they would give me themes to draw or randomly find me in the day and suggest other things I should put into the murals. The looks on their faces at the end of each day was worth aching arms and back (my aching arms and back)

These pieces will be used in conjunction with a traveling caravan museum which the School will bring into the second phase of the "Making History" Project.